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Start giftingAmaryllis
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Learn more"This is a powerful tale of family, forgiveness, and acceptance of what life throws in our paths - but ultimately, with its almost painful realism, this is the finest depiction of war we've yet seen for young readers." — KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review)
AMARYLLIS. It was the name of the ship that ran aground on Singer Island, Florida, during a hurricane in 1965. It became a battle cry for Jimmy Staples and his older brother, Frank, and a code word for going surfing together. But now that eighteen-year-old Frank is off battling the enemy (and his own addictive demons) in Vietnam and fifteen-year-old Jimmy is left to deal with the repercussions at home, "Amaryllis" takes on an ominous new meaning - a symbol of what happens when life places the unexpected in our paths.
Craig Crist-Evans has written a wrenching novel of a family whose internal battles chase one son away - into the clutches of a war and an enemy he could never have imagined. Told both from a soldier's view and by the brother he leaves behind, Amaryllis is an ideal choice for students learning about the Vietnam era, or for any listener curious about the reality of war.
"Every step forward, every word, is an act of discovery," said author Craig Crist-Evans of his approach to writing poetry. And he obviously found a winning formula, as evidenced by the International Reading Association's Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award he received for MOON OVER TENNESSEE: A BOY'S CIVIL WAR JOURNAL.
Craig Crist-Evans's mastery of poetic form is also apparent in NORTH OF EVERYTHING, a poignant novel-in-verse about a family who moves to a Vermont farm in search of a new beginning and a simpler life. Of his inspiration for this book, the author said, "NORTH OF EVERYTHING is my attempt to portray the changes one boy and his family experience--through the shifting seasons and in their own lives--that lead them to a humble acceptance of both beauty and loss in the world." This spare, lyrical novel will speak to anyone who has experienced change and loss, and who has faced the struggle--and found the spirit to carry on.
Prior to writing NORTH OF EVERYTHING, Craig Crist-Evans decided to try his hand at a new format: his first prose novel. "AMARYLLIS was an experiment," the author said. "I sat down without any idea at all of what might come. I wanted to attempt prose the same way I do poems. And so it was an act of discovery, for the story itself, and for my sense of myself as a fiction writer." The result was a haunting story of two brothers separated, yet forever connected, by the devastation of war--a partly autobiographical novel that incorporates themes from the author's younger days. "It was the fall of 1965. My family had just moved from Ohio to Florida," the author recalled. "During one of the biggest hurricanes of the century, the AMARYLLIS nosed into the east coast of Florida near West Palm Beach. For three years, its rusting hulk rose above the beach where I surfed, skipped school, and fell in love. When I started to write this story, that ship rose up again in memory and cast its shadow across those years of turmoil, fear, and change we now call the Vietnam War." Says KIRKUS REVIEWS of Craig Crist-Evans's prose "experiment" in a starred review: "With its almost painful realism, this is the finest depiction of war we've seen yet for young readers."
In addition to authoring books, poet and writer Craig Crist-Evans published poems, articles, essays, and reviews in numerous journals, and he taught English and directed the Writing Center at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Craig Crist-Evans died in 2005.